Half-Measures Horseface

Minimum: The smallest quantity, number, or degree possible or permissible.

It's funny how few of us are willing to put very much effort into our recovery at the start. We don't run into the adult pool, screaming with pleasure, and do a big cannonball into the deep end. We sneak in the back door and stick one big toe into the kiddie pool and run screaming with fear back into the locker room. It's cold! The water's too deep! I forgot to put on my bathing suit!


This is why the literature makes reference to an "easier, softer way" and "half-measures." My nickname for about two years was Half-Measures Horseface. I tried to do the least amount of work possible to get by. This is my modus operandi for life. I drank like this, too. I take everything right up to the edge. It's all or Nothing. It's stopped, or full acceleration. In fact, my current nickname is All or Nothing Horseface.

I have heard this thread in a number of meetings lately. People say: "I was staying sober but I wasn't very happy until I really became part of the Program." For me, this is a way of life, not medicine I have to take every day. A.A. isn't Castor oil or an enema. It's supposed to be fun, sometimes, anyway.



I figure if I'm working my program diligently - meetings, phone calls, quiet times, some reading and writing - I spend a couple of hours a day on recovery. Let's be generous and say 15 hours a week, on a good week. Sounds like a lot of time until I compare it with my pre-recovery. I figure on an average week I spent 6 hours a day Monday through Friday drinking, throwing up, getting bailed out of jail, looking for my $&#!! car, stuff like that. Then Saturday and Sunday; let's be conservative and figure on two 12 hour days. So on a typical week I'm looking at 50 to 60 hours of drinking infused activities.

No wonder I didn't get anything done.

That 15 hours doesn't sound too bad any more.